‘The Orville’ Episode 2 Sneak Peek: Bortus Pushes Alara To Take Command

Alara is left with no choice but to take command of the ship in Season 1, episode 2 of “The Orville.”

In a sneak peek from this week’s episode of the Fox series, Alara (Halston Sage) rushes to Bortus’ (Peter Macon) quarters for help after Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) and First Officer Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) suddenly go missing.

Alara explains that they got a distress call from a transport ship, but soon after Ed and Kelly boarded the ship to attend to their problem, the whole ship just disappeared.

Bortus, who is currently brooding his egg, asks Alara who is in command. When the Xelayan says that she’s the one in charge, the Moclan tells her that she must find them.

Executive producer David A. Goodman told The Hollywood Reporter that Alara has never been in a command situation before, and that explains why Alara tries to convince Bortus to take the lead instead of doing it herself. “Sir, if you could’ve just come back to the bridge, the captain would have never left me in command,” Alara tells Bortus.

But Bortus insists that he cannot leave his egg. “I am sorry, lieutenant,” Bortus tells Alara. “I will not risk the life of my child. You must remain in command.”

To help her find the courage to lead the rescue mission, Alara goes to the ship’s pantry and gets a shot of tequila.

According to the synopsis for the episode, the transport ship The Orville gets in contact with is actually a hologram. So Ed and Kelly are tricked and find themselves prisoners in a replica of their former home.

“We’re going to revisit the Ed and Kelly dynamics in a great comedic way [as they] get isolated from the rest of the ship,” Goodman said of what viewers can expect in this week’s episode. “We're … going to get into a whole lot of fun with Ed and Kelly and seeing what their relationship is all about and what it used to be like.”

“The Orville” Season 1, episode 2, titled “Command Performance,” airs on Sunday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.